Making kids safer, one question at a time. Welcome to the Car-Seat.Org community! Motor Vehicle Crashes are the #1 cause of fatal injury for children and adults, age groups 1 to 34. Selecting a safe car, minivan or SUV, plus correctly using child restraints and seatbelts may be the most important things you can do to protect your family. Need help installing an infant, convertible or booster seat? Looking for carseat reviews or compatibility advice? Need help buying the best and safest car seats for your baby, toddler or older kid? No question is a bad one, so please click here to ask our experts a question and then join our friendly community of moms, dads, caregivers and advocates in the USA and Canada. Thank you for visiting; buckle-up and drive safely!

Unlike many popular online community forums and websites, Car-Seat.Org is privately owned. It is operated primarily by volunteer moderators who are parents and child passenger safety advocates themselves! Many forums are owned by large corporations, have been purchased by "vertical forum integrators" or were sold long ago by the original founder to another party who simply monetized it for profit. These entities often care little about the topic or community beyond its potential for financial gain. We mention this because Car-Seat.Org is now big enough to be very expensive and time consuming to maintain. We rely on our visitors and members to help us continue with our mission, so we can avoid selling out or moving to facebook, like many other online communities have.

The forum and related websites are now primarily supported by advertising. We do not directly sell any products or services. The easiest and best way to support Car-Seat.Org is to use our links to sponsors and advertisers, including Amazon, when you make a purchase. It doesn't cost you anything but a few extra seconds to use our links or to bookmark our Amazon link or to use our links below!

As many of you know, our websites continue to grow and require increasingly expensive hosting services. As of September, 2013, just the forum alone generated around 5 million page views a month from over 200,000 unique visitors, transferring 100 GigaBytes of data, according to Google Analytics. Based on Quantcast data, our forum and blog combine for over 10,000 unique visitors on an average day. Our forums have nearly 20,000 registered members, of which 750 visit on a typical day. Well over 1000 members and visitors are browsing the forums at most times during the day. The growth in the last few years has put the server resources used by our websites beyond the limit of most standard hosting packages. The database that is over 2GB and is approaching 2 million posts alone puts our forums beyond many e-commerce hosting service capabilities, let alone the 300+ concurrent visitors that visit the forums at any instant during peak times. Combined with the cost of the software and chat room, the additional costs of a very high end dedicated server needed to host our database quickly and reliably has increased the cost to operate the forums to a very significant amount. Until mid-2007, the costs had been much lower, so it was not necessary to accept subscriptions, sponsors or advertising of any kind. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case.

Finally, I ask that you please consider NOT using advertisement-blocking software/settings here, or at the very least put www.car-seat.org into your whitelist. While many of us don't like ads, the reality is that our sponsors and advertisers track who visits their websites from our forum and that affects if they will continue to advertise and how much they are willing to pay. You will see fewer advertisements over time if you register and become an active member, and almost no ads appear for subscribers. Car-Seat.Org does not use any type of pop-up, pop-under, intra-page or other intrusive ads that force you to interact or close them before you can read the content on a page. So, if you must use an ad blocker here, please consider supporting us in other ways listed below.

Please contact Admin by email at webmaster "at" car-seat "dot" org, by private message, or use our contact form for advertising rates, details and how to arrange payment.

SPONSORSHIPS: We are accepting a limited number of Premier Sponsors. This type of sponsorship may include text and/or banner advertisements. These ads may be static or rotating and may be visible to various usergroups depending on the type and placement. Please see below for more details or contact Admin for pricing and additional information.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: Finally, Car-Seat.Org is also accepting optional forum "subscription." Like a donation, it is completely voluntary. Current members and visitors will not have any changes made to their access or features and may continue free of charge as they do now. Subscriptions for individuals are not tax-deductible, as Car-Seat.Org is not a 501(c)(3) charity. As a "thank you", members who do choose to subscribe may be able to receive some additional forum features depending on the type of subscription and their current usergroup. In any case, there are no major features or content for subscribers that cannot be earned free of charge by meeting the requirements for existing usergroups. Not all subscription types or terms are available to all usergroups.

How to Subscribe? Members will now find four major levels of subscriptions available in their User CP under the Paid Subscriptions section. Subscriptions can be paid from within the forums using Paypal or using a credit card through the Paypal service. For most Paypal payments made from within the forums, the subscription should begin automatically within minutes of a completed transaction (eChecks and certain other types of Paypal transfers may take a few business days before Paypal considers them completed). You may also arrange to mail a US Postal Service Money Order by contacting me via Private message. Subscriptions from individuals will be used entirely to pay the costs associated with the websites, forums, chat room and related child passenger safety expenses. They are NOT tax deductible. They are considered gifts and no goods or services are provided in return.

Subscription Levels

1) The first level of subscription is the Car-Seat.Org Supporter. The cost is $3.99 for 2 months or $6.99 for 6 months. Community Members (10 posts, 10 reputation, 30 days registered) who subscribe at the Supporter level will gain full access to the Carseat Swap forum, the Community Member forums and a a number of other enhancements. Senior Community Members (300 posts, 150 reputation, 1 year registered) who subscribe at this level will also gain some additional features, such as increased private mailbox size (1000), attachment size, profile customizations, photo album size and storage space. Supporters may also select a new title (Car-Seat.Org Supporter). Even for those techs and senior members who don't gain many new features, subscriptions at this level are still a big help for offsetting rising costs of operating the forums! Plus, supporters will see no advertising placements except for a single Google Adsense banner near the top of the page under the navigation area, along with the premier forum sponsor logos at the very bottom of each page. Supporter subscriptions are personal gifts, no goods or services are provided in return and are not tax deductible. They are non-refundable and no credit will be given for forum downtime or other issues, sorry!

2) The second level of subscription is the Car-Seat.Org Benefactor. The cost is $5.99 for 3 months or $9.99 for 6 months. Benefactors who are currently in the Member, Senior Community Member and Technical Professionals usergroups will all gain some minor additional features, such as slightly increased private mailbox size (1500), social group creation and other options, group blog creation, plus image and attachment size and storage room increases. Benefactors will essentially get most all of the features of the free CPS Guru usergroup, including access to Carseat Swap, the Community Member Coffee Break private forums and live Chat Room, plus read-only access to the Technical Professionals forum. Benefactors receive increased profile customizations and photo album allocations, animated profile pictures, animated avatars and see who left them reputation comments! The Car-Seat.Org Benefactor title will also be an option in your User CP. Benefactors will see no advertising banners, except for the premier sponsor logos at the very bottom of each page. Benefactor subscriptions are personal gifts, no goods or services are provided in return, and are not tax deductible. They are non-refundable and no credit will be given for forum downtime or other issues, sorry!

3) The third level of subscription is the Home Business Sponsor. The cost is $11.99 for 3 months, or $19.99 for 6 months. A Home Business Sponsor will gain the same forum feature benefits as Car-Seat.Org Benefactors. Also, they receive an increase to 2000 private messages, increased photo storage, animated avatars, more profile customizations, a Sponsor title and listing in the "Forum Leaders" webpage and a few other perks. This sponsorship is for home-based businesses that are typically unincorporated, sole proprietorship, such as network-marketing sales (Amway, Avon, Mary Kay, etc), independent contractors, personal services (child seat inspections, graphic arts, photography, sewing) or personally hand-made products and crafts (diapers, toys, jewelry). It is also for individuals who would like additional features or to contribute at a higher amount. In regards to advertising your home business, only a single, simple text advertising link in your signature is permitted to your personal webpage or network marketing affiliate webpage (EXCLUDES Amazon.com affiliate/webstore sites, sorry!). Other forums of advertising allowed to full Car-Seat.Org Sponsors are not permitted, including signature logos, profile logos, and sponsor sub forums. Basically, no other forums of advertising, solicitation, links or announcements of any kind are allowed at this reduced rate. All advertising will be subject to moderator's discretion and will be removed if it exceeds the guidelines or is considered spam or inappropriate. Please contact Admin for details. Subscriptions at this level from non-business members are not tax deductible. They are also considered personal gifts, as no goods or services are provided in return. They are non-refundable and no credit will be given for forum downtime or other issues, sorry! Subscriptions from home businesses at the sponsor level will usually be considered as advertising and will be treated as taxable, but may be a tax deductible business expense (consult your accountant!).

4) The fourth level of subscription is the Car-Seat.Org Sponsor. The cost is $49.99 for 3 months, $69.99 for 6 months or $24.99 monthly with recurring Paypal payments. A Sponsor will gain all the same benefits as Home Business Sponsors, including an increase to 2000 private messages, plus a Sponsor title and listing in the "Forum Leaders" webpage. The main difference is that Sponsors will be permitted to include more commercial content in their signatures and posts. Specifically, in addition to a single, simple text link to their commerical website, corporate entity or other business web page will be allowed in their signature, they may add a small (468w x 60h max) commercial logo. Sponsors may also used animated signature images within the listed size restrictions, provided they do not cause undue page loading issues. In addition, they will be able to post about their child safety or children's gear related business and products in their Car-Seat.Org blog and also in their own special sponsor sub-forum in the Sponsors section of the Shopping and Deals sub forum. They will also be allowed to customize their profile as a storefront and use a logo in their user profile image. Other forums of advertising are not permitted, including logos in the avatar image. Other advertising, solicitation, links or announcements of any kind are not generally permitted outside the Shopping and Deals forum, as per our guidelines for sponsors. We generally do not accept sponsors who are Amazon.com affiliate/webstore sites, sorry! All advertising will be subject to moderator's discretion and will be removed if it exceeds the guidelines or is considered spam or inappropriate. Please contact Admin for details. Subscriptions at this level from non-business members are not tax dedcutible. They are also considered personal gifts, as no goods or services are provided in return. They are non-refundable and no credit will be given for forum downtime or other issues, sorry! Subscriptions from businesses at the sponsor level will usually be considered as advertising and will be treated as taxable, but may be a tax deductible business expense (consult your accountant!).

Benefactors and sponsors will not see any banner advertisements while browsing the forums, except for the static banner bar from our premier sponsors at the bottom of each page, the logos included in signatures and profiles from our sponsors and any "sticky" threads that may indicate a forum sponsor. Supporters will see only a single banner advertisement at the top of each page.

In addition to subscriptions, we accept banner and other advertising.

Premier Sponsor: In addition to features given to Car-Seat.Org Sponsors above in #3, premier sponsors will also receive a 200x53 static banner link in the premier sponsor section of the foooter on every page that appears to all visitors. They also get various link backs from our page rank 5 forums and static webpages at Car-Safety.org. This helps to improve search engine rankings and website popularity. As an optional upgrade, premier sponsors may choose to add top banner advertising or a sub forum sponsorship.

Top Banner Advertising: This is an upgrade for Premier Sponsors. It includes a 300x250 top banner advertisement (to the right of the "Your Ad Here" text) that appears an all pages to 98% of visitors, with the main exception being subscribers who do not see most advertising. This banner may be rotated with no more than two other Premier Sponsors. For an additional cost, we can also arrange that this banner would be exclusive, such that no other banners in the same placement rotation would be from competitors in your specific area of business (child seat manufacturer, baby gear retailer, automobile brand, etc) and no more than one other Premier Sponsor could be rotated in the same placement.

Sub Forum Sponsorships: This is a less expensive upgrade for Premier Sponsor. You may choose to have a static text link advertisement at the top of an individual sub-forum. This link will appear to guests and non-subscribers who browse that particular forum. The link may go to your website or to your sponsor sub-forum. You may also request a "sticky" post in that sub forum with information about your business. Both of these will appear in a manner such as, "This Forum Sponsored By Your Business".

Home Page Text Link Sponsorships: This is a simple text link advertisement that appears only on the Page Rank 5 home page in the default style for all visitors and members that are not subscribers. It is limited to about 22 characters at bottom of the left sidebar column. Please Contact Us for Rates.

Please contact Admin by email at webmaster "at" car-seat "dot" org, by private message, or use our contact form for advertising rates, details and how to arrange payment.

Premier Sponsorships are not available through the forum subscription system but include an upgrade to a Car-Seat.Org sponsor account. All Premier Sponsors may also request a text back link to be included on our About Us webpage, our links webpage and in our forum sponsors thread. A forum account is not necessary to be a premier sponsor, but all premier sponsors already with forum accounts have their accounts upgraded or extended for the duration of the premier sponsorship. All advertising, images and banners are subject to Admin approval. We reserve the right to reject Premier Sponsorship inquiries, especially for advertisers outside the areas of child products, child safety and auto safety. These sponsorships are considered advertising. As they are generally taxable transactions, they are not considered donations or gifts.

The Fine Print

Most subscriptions are non-recurring so you will have to subscribe again after your time period is complete. If you choose not to renew a subscription, you will be placed back into the usergroup appropriate for your current level of posts, days as a registered user and reputation points. While the features are a nice perk, the intention of these subscriptions is to allow people to support our forums. Many people have asked over the years if they could send a donation and now it is possible to subscribe (I generally do not accept donations outside the forum subscription system). This decision was not made lightly, as I was not willing to accept donations, subscriptions or advertising for many years until it became absolutely necessary. If you know of any childrens product or safety related business who may want to become a premier sponsor, please refer them to Admin!

I hope the community will understand the need for these changes. Hopefully, if our server issues continue, this will allow us to fund a new and improved hosting package in the near future to make the forums run much smoother and quicker- with less downtime when the forums do not respond at all. It may also allow for other enhancements and upgrades to the forums and websites. Whether members choose to subscribe or not, the time and effort from our entire community made on behalf of child passenger safety education is a huge benefit to all our readers. It is this effort from our community of parents, caregivers, technicians and advocates at Car-Seat.Org that make this forum even possible. Thank you!

Please consider personal subscriptions are not refundable, and no goods or services are provided in return . Features, content and pricing are not guaranteed; they are subject to change at any time. All content can be obtained for free with the necessary time registered, number of posts and reputation points. Refunds and credits will not be issued for cancellations, downtime or other reasons. Car-Seat.Org is NOT a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so subscriptions can not be considered charitable contributions and are not tax-deductible for individuals. All subscriptions at the benefactor and supporter levels will be used primarily for Car-Seat.Org forum costs and related expenses and are now supplemented by other advertising revenue to pay the considerable forum and related website hosting costs. and also. As such, revenue from these subscriptions will not be used for any purpose not related to these business activities.

Sponsor level subscriptions from personal businesses or retailers (or other corporate entities using it for advertising purposes) are generally not considered donations and these payments are excluded from the above stipulations as they are taxable transactions and may be a tax-deductible business expense. Premier Sponsorships and upgrades are also treated as taxable transactions and are also excluded from the above stipulations.

Car-Seat.Org is currently hosted by FutureHosting and proudly uses Intel processors, solid state drives and motherboards for its high-end dedicated server.

You are welcome to comment on these changes in this thread, positively or negatively. Unfortunately, the sad, economic reality of forum costs will not allow them to continue with no source of revenue. I am happy to try to answer your questions or concerns, but cannot guarantee that any suggestions will be implemented. The above list of features and details is subject to change at any time and may not be reflected in all references to subscriptions throughout the forums.

Re: Please Support Car-Seat.Org

I don't think that the cost is unreasonable at all especially thinking about all the time and possible money that this site has saved me. I have CC in hand.

I have a question though. I am 3 months and just a few rep points from being a "Senior Community Member". Am I reading it right that if I pay the $36 and become a "Benefactor" I can access the Carseat Swap, the Senior Community Member private forum and live Chat Room, plus read-only access to the Technical Professionals forum even before I reach the "Senior Community Member" level.
I am just wondering because I have been told by several members that the chats are quite fun.

Peggy, RN-Critical Care and Emergency Medicine, CPST and Mommy to Connor (2/05) in a Graco Highback TurboBooster with Safety Surround

Re: Please Support Car-Seat.Org

Originally Posted by Connor's Mom

Am I reading it right that if I pay the $36 and become a "Benefactor" I can access the Carseat Swap, the Senior Community Member private forum and live Chat Room, plus read-only access to the Technical Professionals forum even before I reach the "Senior Community Member" level.

That is correct. The only Senior Community Member feature you won't be able to access as a Benefactor is the actual title of "Senior Community Member." At least, not until you reach the necessary thresholds.

Incidentally, those thresholds were increased recently in part due to the rapidly increasing number of users getting access very quickly and also in part to the possibility that subscriptions would be necessary at some point. So, you might want to revisit them if you haven't checked recently.

Again, prices and features are subject to change, especially before the system goes live. I want to stress that the subscriptions really should be considered as donations. The perks are more of a "thank you";-) I could probably figure out how to get the system to rename subscription to donation, but I don't have time at the moment to look into it. That may be fixed before it goes live.

Re: Please Support Car-Seat.Org

Originally Posted by Admin

Incidentally, those thresholds were increased recently in part due to the rapidly increasing number of users getting access very quickly and also in part to the possibility that subscriptions would be necessary at some point. So, you might want to revisit them if you haven't checked recently.

Is it now 6 months, 100 posts and 50 rep points to be a "Senior Member". That is the threshold I was basing my PP post on. If I remember right it was just increased here recently because I was much closer to the title just a week or so ago I think.

Peggy, RN-Critical Care and Emergency Medicine, CPST and Mommy to Connor (2/05) in a Graco Highback TurboBooster with Safety Surround

Re: Please Support Car-Seat.Org

Originally Posted by Connor's Mom

Is it now 6 months, 100 posts and 50 rep points to be a "Senior Member". That is the threshold I was basing my PP .

That's it. I don't anticipate any changes to this, at least not for a while. These numbers have moved both up and down since the system started late last year, based on trends with members' posting and reputation.

Great signature, by the way. It is a nice model for the maximum height that should be used for the combined total height of images+text ;-)

Re: Please Support Car-Seat.Org

I don't mind paying the $36, as I have learned SO much, and I enjoy all the details that are probably in the forums I can't access, as I can't become a tech for at least 6 months to a year (We are moving, and I'm having a baby).

Re: Please Support Car-Seat.Org

Originally Posted by starlight

No tentative. I just spent 30 minutes convincing dh!!!

Don't worry, it wouldn't change much higher or lower I think. Still surfing other websites and forums to see what is typical but so far it seems in line. Also trying to balance not charging too much for what is really a donation with trying not to have a huge influx of people overloading the chat room.

Re: Please Support Car-Seat.Org

Will there be an option to donate an amount of our choosing? Some may want to donate, but at a level lower (or higher! ) than the subscription levels.

What about a "one time donation" option? I realize since the subscriptions don't automatically renew it's essentially the same thing, but a one time option might be more appealing to people who have found the forums helpful but don't necessarily plan on sticking around. I know I've visited a few forums where I would have used that. Sort of like "Thanks for all your help, here's $5, buh-buy!"

Oh! I've seen a few forums allow members to change another member's title (temporarily) to something of their choosing in return for a small donation. It might be a pain to administer, but it's fun.

Re: Please Support Car-Seat.Org

Will there be an option to donate an amount of our choosing? Some may want to donate, but at a level lower (or higher! ) than the subscription levels.

What about a "one time donation" option? I realize since the subscriptions don't automatically renew it's essentially the same thing, but a one time option might be more appealing to people who have found the forums helpful but don't necessarily plan on sticking around. I know I've visited a few forums where I would have used that. Sort of like "Thanks for all your help, here's $5, buh-buy!"

Oh! I've seen a few forums allow members to change another member's title (temporarily) to something of their choosing in return for a small donation. It might be a pain to administer, but it's fun.

Good question. It hadn't been posted so as not to confuse this option with the in-forum donations that will be available soon. You can indeed donate outright if you aren't a member, want to donate extra, don't care about forum features, etc. Since it isn't tied into the forum system, no forum changes will result. There is a donation button at the About Car-Safety.Org webpage and you can also send from within a Paypal account to donate "at" car-seat "dot" org . Arrangements can also be made to send a money order to the address listed on that webpage, but you need to send a PM to Admin in advance to do so. Please DO NOT donate in this manner if you want your forum account to have the Supporter/Benefactor designation added to it.

As for titles, I'm not sure the admins and mods want to be policing custom ones lol. Mods for forum enhancements generally add to the resources used by the forums and can also decrease security so none have been added other than the chat room which is mostly external.

Re: Please Support Car-Seat.Org

I think I can speak for alot of parents here on how valuable this site is! If I would not have stumbled on this site months ago (while researching for the next seat up after an Infant seat) then Karli would be FFing now because I would have thought that is what you are suppose to do.
I can also Proudly say it is because of this site & the great people here that I want to become a CPST (hopefully this Oct.). I want to be able to help others the way I have been helped here!
The only question I have (and I assume the answer is yes)is ...... will new and visiting people still be able to post and view questions in the Safety Topics Forums, without making donations? Since that is the whole reason for everyone being here.
I will donate yearly to keep just that feature alone, I refer people here all the time, so anything it takes to keep it going is worth it.
Michelle

VISITORS ARE WELCOME TO POST A QUESTION ANONYMOUSLY, WITHOUT REGISTERING. It may take a couple hours or overnight until your post is approved and appears to the public. Due to recent spam attacks, this moderation delay is in effect until you register, confirm email and have your account approved. Please do not re-post your message if it does not appear immediately. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please also read our announcement for more details.

You must read your carseat and vehicle owner’s manual and understand any relevant state laws. These are the rules you must follow to restrain your children safely. All opinions at Car-Seat.Org are those of the individual author for informational purposes only, and do not necessarily reflect any policy or position of Carseat Media LLC. Car-Seat.Org makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. If you are unsure about information provided to you, please visit a local certified technician for a FREE CARSEAT SAFETY INSPECTION. No registration is required to ask a question! Please read our announcement and TERMS OF SERVICE for details before posting or using our website.